New Reader with great pdf-support: Mantano Reader (like aldiko+ezpdf)

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Carl314

Mary, I asked that very question in their support forums, and the response was that the feature is planned. They didn't say when, but to me that's about the only major feature missing. In the meantime, I access OPDS via the web, and when the epub file is downloaded, I click on it and Mantano opens it.

By the way, their forums seem to have disappeared in the past couple of days - anyone know anything about that?

Cheers, Carl.

It's still there. you have to go to the Zendesk Support link to access it.

[Synergi]

Well I filed a support ticket on August 15th. As of today, I still haven't heard anything from the company and I'm just going to assume my money is lost since I've waited to long to try and get a refund from Amazon. I thought with them being on this thread they would be helpful with support.

If you buy this App, make sure it works on your device because support doesn't seem to be there for more difficult issues.

[jhempel24]

I'm starting to find problems now with this app.

I connect to Calibre via computer and transfer books, and half the books transferred PREVIOUSLY have to be re-added because they are no longer in the library. I lose all places in the books I've read as well.

Also if you re-add the book with say a different title and refresh, it doesn't get rid of the books that are no longer there, you have to manually do that.

The reader itself is great, but I'm finding a LOT of problems with the interface. I hope it gets fixed in an update. I thought it was coming earlier this month, but I guess not now?

[peaceridge]

Originally Posted by Synergi

Well I filed a support ticket on August 15th. As of today, I still haven't heard anything from the company and I'm just going to assume my money is lost since I've waited to long to try and get a refund from Amazon. I thought with them being on this thread they would be helpful with support.

If you buy this App, make sure it works on your device because support doesn't seem to be there for more difficult issues.

Same with me - I was allowed to buy it, but not download it - filed a report - and nothing! Chock it up to lost money.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Synergi

Well I filed a support ticket on August 15th. As of today, I still haven't heard anything from the company and I'm just going to assume my money is lost since I've waited to long to try and get a refund from Amazon. I thought with them being on this thread they would be helpful with support.

If you buy this App, make sure it works on your device because support doesn't seem to be there for more difficult issues.

I would still contact Amazon and ask for a refund. They are pretty good about understanding things like this. Explain to them the situation. I would call them as email support isn't the best but phone support usually is.

[jhempel24]

Okay, I may have to go back to the stock B&N reader until there is an update, which sucks.

My books randomly disappear from the library and I have to re-sync. Sometimes its 5-6 of them, sometimes its ALL of them, it seems to be random.

It's a shame because it's a good reader.

[loyukfai]

Let's hope Mantano is just busy with the trade show in September as they mentioned before......

While we're at this, I would like to suggest moving the bookmark icon to a little bit farther from the right edge because on some devices (including mine), the touchscreen has problems dealing with touches close to the edges, and sometimes it takes me a few tried to bookmark, instead of turning a page.

Cheers.

Edit: Ooops, apparently there's another trade show from October 12-16... http://www.mantano.com/2011/07/13/fbf-2011/

Think they used to be supplying the underlying technology to others, and probably new to this "deal-with-enduser" thingy...

[Peake]

I like this app, and I don't regret my purchase, but I'm also frustrated with it. It has such potential, but it falls short in several key places.

For casual reading, I like it. It's quick, it doesn't take forever to load a book, the tagging system and themes, bookmarking and highlighting -- all mostly good, but there are things that would make it even better:

- Filter view by folder location (Planned)
- Filter view by multiple tags
- Remember filtered view (Planned)
- Be able to update author and book cover
- Series info!
- Be able to read the Calibre .opf file when importing a book exported from Calibre. Saves retagging items.
- Remember zoom level (Planned)
- Default language when not specified (Planned)
- Be able to tag books when importing in bulk (with multiple tags, if desired)
- Theme customization:
- Be able to enter RGB values for colours when creating a default theme - my fat fingers can never zero in on the exact colour I want within the tiny box.
- Font family support
- Specify background image -- I rather liked the paper look you could select in CoolReader. Not critical, but I'd still like to see it.
- Screen brightness/font sizings gestures toggle on/off. I don't know how many times I've accidentally adjusted brightness and font when I'm trying to do something else.
- As mentioned by loyufai, make the area near the bookmark ribbon 'immune' to page turn.
- Highlighting when you wish to stop at the first or last word on a line can be diffcult. I -find myself zooming in to a huge font size to do this.
- Option to use other dictionaries. Colordict and the imbedded dictionaries are a start, but I'd like to be able to integrate some of my others as well. I'm not always online to access web definitions.

In regards to using Mantano for 'work' reading, unfortunately, I've mostly reverted to using other apps or doing the work on my laptop/desktop instead. Most of the reading I do in this regard is journal articles, drafts/proofs, and reading books sent to me for review.

Eh, I've ran out of space.

Regards,
Peake

[Peake]

... continuing from previous post. I know this is long but I'm hoping the developers might stop in and read this, or that others using Mantano may know workarounds for the problems I'm encountering.

---

- Need an option to not automatically add an item to the library. Some articles I download I find do not contain the type of information I'm looking for, and I had to go back and delete the item from the library manually.
- The freehand notetaking is just unusable.
- The unzoom to turn page (unless using volume keys, which I prefer not to use, as I'm usually listening to music while I work) and the rezoom to reading level is tedious. This may be my fat fingers, but I've not discovered an easy way to turn pages in PDFs when reading in zoomed mode.
- Column reading would be nice, but if zoom level is remembered, I'd be able to work with that.
- Inability to save a marked up copy (forget using freehand, but I did try with text notes) of a draft/proof and send the annotated PDF to a collaborator/student for corrections/review. I read you can import it to another system via ADE by connecting my device, but when I'm in the States and my collaborator is in Norway, this is not a feasible option. I will admit that I did not experiment with trying to send the document to see if he could import it to his ADE installation. Perhaps it could be done that way, but it would be much simpler just to send the annotated copy so the recipient could view it in any PDF reader chosen.
- Text notes
- Cannot filter view by document or tags associated with document. You can sort by note title and creation date, but you still see all your notes, and if you have numerous notes, as I did, having to resort, repage to get to the ones I wanted was again, tedious.
I used tags to group articles by research project. I could type a Note title to group these, but if I could filter by tag, I wouldn't have to type a Note title for every single note I take.
- Exporting notes/highlighted text bits. I need this to build citations, collect thoughts, etc. I've tried the share option, but the lack of filtering (can't select all and share in bulk), make it too clumsy to use when having to check each note individually.

I know you can't please everyone -- but this application has such potential. Just fixing the filter/sort/metadata options would make a huge difference. I've looked at what was stored in the reader's database -- the information is there to implement these options. The freehand notetaking will probably involve a significant investment in programming time, but as it is, it might as well not be there.

I'm hoping this reader will mature to be a robust reading/library/note app that I can use on the go. A good start has been made, but improvements are needed for a productivity app, not just a casual reader.

Regards,
Peake

[sangahm]

Originally Posted by Peake

... continuing from previous post. I know this is long but I'm hoping the developers might stop in and read this, or that others using Mantano may know workarounds for the problems I'm encountering.

Gotta agree with many of these, especially the bookmarking, notes, background images, and turning off brightness/font size.

To your list, I'd like to add the option for a status bar to show the page #, percent in book, and chapter page #.

Those improvements would make it a complete package for me.

[jhempel24]

Originally Posted by sangahm

Gotta agree with many of these, especially the bookmarking, notes, background images, and turning off brightness/font size.

To your list, I'd like to add the option for a status bar to show the page #, percent in book, and chapter page #.

Those improvements would make it a complete package for me.

If you just tap the screen it'll give you that information (regarding status, not pages into chapter).

[=X=]

They use own annotation system that is works the same for their ePUBs and PDFs.

For true PDF annotations you need to use apps like RepliGo or ezPDF.

[Peake]

Originally Posted by =X=

They use own annotation system that is works the same for their ePUBs and PDFs.

For true PDF annotations you need to use apps like RepliGo or ezPDF.

Indeed, I use ezPDF for my freehand markups; it does that really well. I just email my annotated copy and I'm done. I had hoped with the freehand notes in Mantano I could do the same, and thus use only one app for PDFs, but alas no. It's not just that you can't save an annotated copy, there's other problems as well, which is why I said it was unusable, with ePubs as well. I posted a question on their zendesk community forum describing the problems some time back -- but no answer, so I just went back to ezPDF for doing those tasks when I'm out and about.

Regards,
Peake

[JosephG]

Hi Peake and all MR members !

First of all, thank you very much for all your feedback and your patience.
Although we've not been active in the discussions these days, we are still working very hard on the application: it's not in a dead end and remains at the core of our activity. We needed to do some background work to be able to embrace new great features more comfortably and safely.

To enter the discussion again, please find below the answers (in a telegraphic style) to Peake's latest posts, which are a good summary of the feature requests we have on the Support Center:

Originally Posted by Peake

- Filter view by folder location (Planned)

Done.

Originally Posted by Peake

- Filter view by multiple tags

Planned without ETA yet.

Originally Posted by Peake

- Remember filtered view (Planned)

Planned for next release.

Originally Posted by Peake

- Be able to update author and book cover

Update book cover --> done,
Update author --> Next release

Originally Posted by Peake

- Series info!

Next release

Originally Posted by Peake

- Be able to read the Calibre .opf file when importing a book exported from Calibre. Saves retagging items.

Will come later. On our TODO-list but not scheduled.

Originally Posted by Peake

- Remember zoom level (Planned)

Next release.

Originally Posted by Peake

- Default language when not specified (Planned)

It should work, we'll double-check this point.

Originally Posted by Peake

- Be able to tag books when importing in bulk (with multiple tags, if desired)

Good idea. Not planned yet but it will be considered.

Originally Posted by Peake

- Theme customization:
- Be able to enter RGB values for colours when creating a default theme - my fat fingers can never zero in on the exact colour I want within the tiny box.

We'll add alternative ways to choose colors. Probably not in the next release.

Originally Posted by Peake

- Font family support
- Specify background image -- I rather liked the paper look you could select in CoolReader. Not critical, but I'd still like to see it..

Planned. Not in next release but probably in the next one.

Originally Posted by Peake

- Screen brightness/font sizings gestures toggle on/off. I don't know how many times I've accidentally adjusted brightness and font when I'm trying to do something else.

Good idea: Next release.

Originally Posted by Peake

- As mentioned by loyufai, make the area near the bookmark ribbon 'immune' to page turn.

Next release, sorry for this inconvenience, and "hello" to Loyukfai :-)

Originally Posted by Peake

- Highlighting when you wish to stop at the first or last word on a line can be diffcult. I -find myself zooming in to a huge font size to do this.

We'll work on improving it, with no ETA yet. Highlighting comfort is very important.

Originally Posted by Peake

- Option to use other dictionaries. Colordict and the imbedded dictionaries are a start, but I'd like to be able to integrate some of my others as well. I'm not always online to access web definitions.

Which other dictionaries are you using ?

Originally Posted by Peake

- Need an option to not automatically add an item to the library. Some articles I download I find do not contain the type of information I'm looking for, and I had to go back and delete the item from the library manually.

Probably not in the next release, but in the next but one.

Originally Posted by Peake

- The freehand notetaking is just unusable.

One of our deep re-work. No ETA yet but we are working on it.

Originally Posted by Peake

- The unzoom to turn page (unless using volume keys, which I prefer not to use, as I'm usually listening to music while I work) and the rezoom to reading level is tedious. This may be my fat fingers, but I've not discovered an easy way to turn pages in PDFs when reading in zoomed mode.

Next release.

Originally Posted by Peake

- Column reading would be nice, but if zoom level is remembered, I'd be able to work with that.

We already have this "column reading": simply double-tap on a column. Or do you wish something different ?

Originally Posted by Peake

- Inability to save a marked up copy (forget using freehand, but I did try with text notes) of a draft/proof and send the annotated PDF to a collaborator/student for corrections/review. I read you can import it to another system via ADE by connecting my device, but when I'm in the States and my collaborator is in Norway, this is not a feasible option. I will admit that I did not experiment with trying to send the document to see if he could import it to his ADE installation. Perhaps it could be done that way, but it would be much simpler just to send the annotated copy so the recipient could view it in any PDF reader chosen.

This is a huge and hot topic there. We are currently working on a companion web platform which will allow you to backup your whole library (including bookmarks, highlights & annotations) and sync your devices. Your co-workers ill be able to read your annotations directly on this website and send you feedback. If they have the app, too, then they will be able to read your annotations directly in the application.
This is not for the next release but for the next one, which should be out in approx. 1 month.
As we already told on the support center or on some other discussion forums, we are also considering embedding notes into the PDFs, but we currently postponed this to first focus on the web platform that I briefly described. Embedded annotations are not cancelled. They are just postponed.
Between both solutions, we decided to focus on the sharing option, which is more convenient, since there is no need to send copies of the document. The annotations refer to the same original copy.

Originally Posted by Peake

- Text notes
- Cannot filter view by document or tags associated with document. You can sort by note title and creation date, but you still see all your notes, and if you have numerous notes, as I did, having to resort, repage to get to the ones I wanted was again, tedious.
I used tags to group articles by research project. I could type a Note title to group these, but if I could filter by tag, I wouldn't have to type a Note title for every single note I take.

Filter by document is done. We'll add filter by tags in a future release (no ETA yet). It obviously makes sense, your use case is probably common.

Originally Posted by Peake

- Exporting notes/highlighted text bits. I need this to build citations, collect thoughts, etc. I've tried the share option, but the lack of filtering (can't select all and share in bulk), make it too clumsy to use when having to check each note individually.

In the current beta version, you can now filter. We've added a "Report" view as well as a function to export as HTML. I think the web platform will also be convenient for you since you'll be able to acces your annotations directly from your computer and extract them to integrate them into your own reports.

Originally Posted by Peake

I know you can't please everyone -- but this application has such potential. Just fixing the filter/sort/metadata options would make a huge difference. I've looked at what was stored in the reader's database -- the information is there to implement these options. The freehand notetaking will probably involve a significant investment in programming time, but as it is, it might as well not be there.

I'm hoping this reader will mature to be a robust reading/library/note app that I can use on the go. A good start has been made, but improvements are needed for a productivity app, not just a casual reader.

This is our goal. Thank you very, very much for your interest in our app and for your detailed suggestions. As you can see, we "take them into account", and integrate them. Our release frequency has been slowed down because of the deep rework that we did but we'll soon be able to make more frequent releases.

Best regards,

Joseph

[ArthurG]

@peaceridge

Hello,
I work for Mantano's customer support. Of course, if you can't use the app at all on your device you'll get a refund, like we just did for Synergi. Could you give me the number of the ticket that you posted ? Or if not, please contact us on the helpdesk for the refund.